Prepositional Phrases

In a sentence prepositions show the relation of one word to another word. Prepositions require an object to complete them, typically a noun or a pronoun. A preposition and its object is called a prepositional phrase.

The Prepositional Phrase

If any of the words in the table below do not have an object when used in a sentence, then the word is not functioning as a preposition. The words below can be used as a preposition in a prepositional phrase.

Prepositions in the Sentence

The words in the lists above can be used as prepositions. In order for one of these words to be considered a preposition, it must be part of a prepositional phrase. Here are some examples of a prepositional phrase:

over the hill
behind the door
at Mary's house
without your coat
during lunch
atop Mount Everest

Notice that the prepositional phrase contains no verbs. Generally, they contain an adjective, a noun or pronoun and they can also contain a gerund. The noun or pronoun is the object of the preposition. Prepositional phrases can also contain conjunctions to join two nouns or pronouns as in this example:

underneath sand and rock

The advantage of being able to recognize prepositional phrases in sentences is that neither the subject nor the verb will ever be a part of the prepositional phrase. Consider this sentence: "The coat on the chair is mine." If we eliminate the prepositional phrase, "on the chair" then we can easily see that coat is the subject and is is the verb."The coat on the chair is mine."

Note: Prepositions do not change form.

Prepositions are not without evaluation challenges. For instance, a preposition paired with a verb is called a phrasal verb, a preposition can follow, rather than precede its object.

Activities and Books Related to Prepositions

Curriculum: A workbook series called Easy Grammar takes advantage of prepositions in sentence mark-up. You can read about how to make a lesson plan series for the curriculumPlanning Easy Grammar at donnayoung.org.

An activity to learn prepositions is playing preposition bingo. This game was devised by the author of the Easy Grammar series. There are additional printable bingo cards on this web-site on the Preposition Bingo page and at Fancy Preposition Bingo.

Another activity that my children and I did is to make up prepositional phrases at the spur of the moment. Using the list of prepositions or, in most cases, from our memory, we made up phrases for the words such as:

after the fall
behind my chair
beyond the sunset
amid the crowd

Books for the Younger Crowd

The children's book, Bears in the Night (Berenstein Bears), is full of prepositional phrases. Your public library might have a copy of this book. Below are two more books. Links go to amazon.com.Under the Sky by Rozanne Lanczak WilliamsRosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins

Over the River and Through the Wood

A Thanksgiving song by Lydia Maria Child, this song has many prepositional phrases

Follow Donna Young

Advertisements

At DonnaYoung.org

Advertisements

Blank Page? Missing File Links?

If the page is blank or if links to files cannot be found, then you are using an ad-blocker. In order to use the free resources at donnayoung.org, ads must be displayed. If you wish to print Donna Young's files and to read the articles, whitelist donnayoung.org and then refresh the web page. See also Terms of Use.